The invention pertains to a switch for motor vehicles which comprises a pivoted operating lever, one pivoting position of which represents a neutral position that also has an assigned electrical state.
DE-OS 3,249,359 discloses a steering column switch, in which the left or right turn signals are respectively connected to a voltage source via sensitive microswitches if the operating lever is manually moved into the two operating positions. In this particular switch, no circuit is closed in the neutral position of the operating lever.
In this known steering column switch, the sensitive microswitches are realized in the form of encapsulated circuit switches that are actuated by the operating lever.
A similar switch with two sensitive microswitches that are realized in the form of make contact elements and selectively actuated via the operating lever is used as a mode selection switch in construction machines and tractors. In one operating position of the operating lever, the transmission is shifted into the forward mode, with the transmission being shifted into the reverse mode when the operating lever is moved into the other operating position. In such instances, it would be desirable to close an additional circuit in the neutral position of the operating lever which, for example, is looped into the starter circuit of an internal combustion engine.
The additional circuit that is closed in the neutral position of the operating lever should be interrupted in both operating positions of the operating lever so as to effectively prevent the internal combustion from starting in one of the operating positions that represent the forward mode and the reverse mode of the transmission.
DE-OS 3,623,979 discloses a suitable switch for this purpose that fulfills its function with only two sensitive microswitches. However, the switches disclosed in this publication are relatively complicated and have a comparatively large space requirement. In addition, the switching contacts are not well protected, i.e., the switching contacts are easily affected by dirt and corrosion.
A similar switch is described in DE-OS 2,855,451.
An object of the invention consists of designing a switch with three switching positions in such a way that it can be inexpensively manufactured and that it is largely insensitive to environmental influences.